St. Matthew xxv.41: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

I read an anonymous quote this week which seemed appropriate to share with you this Sunday, the fourth of the Four Last Things, Hell: “Everyone will live forever. Not everyone will enjoy it.”

Satan hates us so very much. For all the rebellion and hatred he bears to God, he cannot hurt God directly, for God is all powerful. Even when he thought he could hurt Christ, he could not tempt Him into sin. He could not break Christ on the Cross. Instead, Christ broke the power of Satan and Hell on the Cross.

However, Satan can hurt God’s creatures. Unlike the angels, we men are made in the image of God. Satan seeks to destroy us like a ravening lion. So when Old Scratch and his demons get their filthy claws on us in Hell, they torture for all eternity.

Both man and angel are created, are designed, are built to bask in the presence of the great giver of life, the Lord God Almighty. As much as man and angel may hate God and seek to flee from his presence, so both are horribly distressed by great longing for God. That impure corrupted longing turned long ago into distorted loathing and hatred and contempt for the erstwhile object of love.

As Fr. Von Cochem says about the Devil:

Of all the fallen spirits, not one is so abominable as the chief of all, the haughty Lucifer, whose cruelty, malice and spite render him an object of dread not merely to the damned, but also to the devils subject to him. This Lucifer is called by various names in Holy Scriptures, all indicating his malignity. On account of his repulsiveness he is called a dragon; on account of his ferocity, a lion; on account of his malice, the old serpent; on account of his deceitfulness, the father of lies; on account of his haughtiness, king over all the children of pride; and on account of his great power and might, the prince of this world.

The other devils and demons are fallen angels who are not as mighty or created as perfectly good as Lucifer, and therefore are not so evil and ugly as him. Just as men often in Scripture behold angels and attempt to worship them because of their beauty and goodness, so we would hardly be able to abide the presence of demons in their unhidden form because of their ugliness and wickedness. That we can scarcely contemplate how miserable in appearance devils are is why they are often portrayed in a gruesome and grotesque manner.

Immediately after making my confession on retreat at Holy Spirit monastery in Conyers, I was visited in a nightmare by a creature so horrible in countenance that I could only barely describe it. I was immensely terrified and would have been frightened away from spiritual matters entirely – thus acquiescing to the damning of my soul – were I not fortified in the Holy Sacraments and prayer. The Sacraments are the grace of God the Son and prayer is ultimately of God the Father – when mediated by God the Holy Ghost, we are invincible to all demonic spiritual attack.

Hell is the place reserved for Satan, his demons, and cursed men. It is a place of everlasting fire. St. Matthew xxv.41: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” Hell is real and everlasting, as is Heaven. The wicked and damned go to Hell forever, and the righteous and saved go to Heaven forever. St. Matthew xxv.46: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

The Roman Christians in antiquity would stand prayerfully together as they would be mauled to death by wild animals in the Coliseum. They could die heroically at peace in our Lord while vicious beasts, deranged by hunger, would pounce upon them, pull them down, and tear their flesh with fang and claw. They could die this way because they had victory in Christ and knew that Hell had worse to offer. Think upon that, dear souls! How ruthlessly did the lions rip into their flesh! Would the angry hungry evil angels be more merciful than a brutalized innocent animal? Our brethren knew that the feasting of demons upon their Resurrection bodies would go on for eternity – and the demons would never eat their fill or satisfy their lust for flesh.

Oftentimes I have heard that the company would be better in Hell than in Heaven, as if Hell would be some great party that would never end. Perhaps the companionship would not be near as boring as would be the squares in Heaven. But loving-kindness is entirely missing in Hell. There is no camaraderie amongst the damned. Hell is the realm where all are embittered against each other, mocking and cursing with enmity for all.

St. Mark ix.43-4

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Christ says this not to injure our bodies. Sin does not work in our hands and feet and eyes. Sin works in our hearts. But indeed we should be counted among the blessed if we were to lose our hands and feet and eyes in this world and flourish in Heaven above for all eternity! The holy martyrs certainly thought so. St. Lawrence the Deacon was roasted alive. Yet knowing that Christ was his redeemer, he famously said to his executioners to turn him over, for this side was done! How could he be so bold as he died a death of torture? Because His savior lived! And St. Lawrence was about to join Him in Heaven. Truly the slings and insults of this world are nothing compared to the agonies of Hell.

So Christ says it is better to cut off your own body parts and live maimed than to go to Hell intact. And three times here in St. Mark’s Gospel Christ tells us why: “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” The filthy, rotten, tormenting, grotesque demons of Hell do not die in Hellfire. They gnaw on your soul for eternity. And the fire never wanes or dies either. For age unto age the blast furnace heat far exceeds the fire into which King Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That pagan king heated up that furnace seven times beyond its regular blaze. So very hot was it that the men who threw the three Jewish lads into it died from exposure to the heat. Yet God sent his angel to protect the young men in there. But Hellfire is profoundly hotter than the furnaces of Babylon, and God keeps his holy angels far from pits of Hell.

The rich man asked Father Abraham to send Lazarus with his finger dipped in water so to cool his burnt parched lips. But Father Abraham told that wicked soul that he had enjoyed his good things in his life and not done justice. There was no relief for him who had ignored the righteous soul starving at the gate, stepping over the poor man on his way about town. There is no relief in Hell, there is no companionship in Hell, there is no clean air to breathe in Hell, there is no rest from torment in Hell, and there is no peace and quiet in Hell.

The unforgiving oven of Hell continuously burns all flesh therein. And since all the cursed souls in Hell possess their eternal bodies, the stench of burning flesh does not abate over the millennia. The cries of the cursed, the stench of the damned, the torments of the devils, the separation from God, and the sheer inescapability of it all are too gruesome for us to understand but in the extremes of our language. For we still possess our frail bodies of our mortality. We still live our lives of decision. We may yet turn to God. We may yet spurn Satan and embrace Christ. Our judgement is still yet to come, for we mortal men remain alive … today. But as death and judgement await us, so does either Heaven or Hell.

St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians ii.9, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Wonderful bounteous beauties await those who follow Christ unto the end. There, in Heaven, we will eternally witness and experience the dynamic loving-kindness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. But those in Hell are denied this, the Beatific Vision. The damned do not behold God, for they lived without God; they lived for themselves, and so they remain tortured by the lack of God for which they were made in the company of all the foul spirits who rejected God for themselves. Thus, those in perdition suffer the company of the most selfish wicked souls ever created while those in bliss enjoy the great love of those who put you above themselves.

We were made by God to enjoy God. To be denied God for eternity is the greatest sorrow man can know. Now we are on the earth in our mortal life, and so we can only barely glimpse what the damned miss. For we ourselves are yet getting to know God. We still foolishly believe that something other than God may bring us greater joy than our Creator. St. Bonaventure said, “The most terrible penalty of the damned is being shut out forever from the blissful and joyous contemplation of the Blessed Trinity.” St. John Chrysostom said, “I know many persons only fear Hell because of its pains, but I assert that the loss of the celestial glory is a source of more bitter pain than all the torments of Hell.” Every moment we feel loss or long for something we cannot have, we are touched by the lack of God in our lives. So we try to fill up our emptiness with the delights of the flesh and the world, with passions, honors, riches, sensual gratifications, and all the vain and fleeting pleasures of this realm. But all of these things are hollow and empty. God alone is the one true source of the soul’s happiness. To be finally denied the only source of happiness is logically to live in eternal despair and agony.

The eternal sorrow of the damned will recall their many occasions to turn from the way of wickedness, all the wrongs committed against God and neighbor, and all the many times their friends and family urged them to amend their ways. Thus their conscience will pain them beyond measure, along with the stench, the heat, the cries of the lost, and the torments of demons. They will forever know that they could have avoided such an unbearable fate had they only responded truthfully to the Lord of life instead of making their own way according to their own perverse and peculiar thoughts. Alas, the presence of their own minds, will, conscience, and memory, cause the damned everlasting torment so unspeakable that our stomachs quiver in disgust.

Dear children of God, do not listen to the whispers of this world, which are either the hushed tones of sinful men or fallen angels. David said (Psalm xiv.1): “THE fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” You will hear that there is no God, no punishment, and no Hell. You will be told that you may live your life however selfishly you wish and will never have to answer for your crimes. But those words tempt you away from Christ and straight into the maw of Satan.

To avoid Hell, you must believe in Jesus Christ and give your heart to Him, you must be Baptized into His Death and Resurrection, and you must repent of your sins.

To grow in Christ as a living branch of his Body, you must obey the Six Precepts or Duties of Churchmen. That is, worship every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation. Receive the Body and Blood of Christ frequently. Give our Lord the first tenth of your income in the tithe. Seek after righteousness by keeping your conscience clean of all sin and confess your sins if you fall. Fast like our Lord did when directed to by His Body. And keep the marriage laws of the Church, witnessing to the holiness of Christ.

If you are doing all these things, then seriously attend to prayer, good works, and studying the Holy Scripture. It is possible and not all that difficult to live such a life. Besides avoiding Hell, the soul who carefully lives a Christian life will grow closer and closer to our Lord while you still draw breath on this earth, after which He will not forget you in the world to come.

St. Matthew xxv.41: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“Our Highest Calling”

St. Paul dearly loved the Church at Philippi, and today’s Epistle lesson shows it. The prayer and rejoicing which shine forth in these verses set the tone for the entire epistle. Let’s take a closer look at it.

“I THANK my God upon every remembrance of you “

“I thank” is the same root as Eucharist, actually eucharisto here. He thanks God for his remembrance of them. They have supported him in his mission amongst the Gentiles. St. Paul is grateful for them.

St. Paul loved all of the Philippians and cared for them all, even though he had words of warning for some of them. He could criticize them, indeed he was obligated by his office as apostle to admonish them, but that in no way diminished his love for them. God loves us all, regardless of whether or not we deserve his love. That’s the way that the love of God is – it is never earned, only given – and received. St. Paul knew this personally, for he had been a persecutor of the Church and was complicit in the martyrdom of St. Stephen.

“always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,”

Here St. Paul mentions prayer twice, once with the word prayer and also in “making request”. He writes, “for you all” praying for all of the Philippians, not just the elite or saints, including those who are difficult, the ones he will later chastise.

This prayer for each other builds what they already have between them and is a result of the love they have between them. The relationship of prayer with those who are joined in Christ is never simple and one-directional. They are bound in prayer for each other to God as they are bound together in Christ’s love.

“With joy” opens one of the important themes of the epistle. He prays for them with joy. In Ephesians, he writes so much of love. Here in Philippians, he writes wrapped in joy. He wrote in Galatians v.22, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,” and so on. As John Wesley said, “Joy peculiarly enlivens prayer.”

“for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;”

One reason for St. Paul’s joy is fellowship, or in Greek, koinonia. In Christian terms, fellowship is more than association. It is an evocative word, summoning meanings of emotion and practicality. The Gospel brings all Christians into a relationship of responsibility for each other.

In this particular situation, the Philippians have shared responsibility with St. Paul for his missions. The Philippians have looked after St. Paul – and he after them – with care, joy, thanksgiving, and prayer. They have a past together, but they also have a future together. He was genuinely thankful for the Philippians’ participation in his ministry. For truly the ministry is neither yours or mine but His – Christ’s. They shared in His ministry together.

“being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

God, by his grace, has begun a good work in them which he will bring to perfection. What God begins, he sees through to the end; the end of God’s work is perfection, or it is not God’s work at all. The “day of Jesus Christ” is the day of Christ’s Second Coming. This is when the worship of Him by the entire cosmos in ii.10-11 will manifestly become a reality. When Christ returns, we will then see

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

“even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.”

“To think this” is not just the stuff of intellect, but to judge or to hold an opinion; to have an attitude toward something. To “have you in my heart” speaks to the deep emotional bond St. Paul has with the Philippians. The heart is not just seat of emotions but center of a person.

St. Paul is explaining to them why he loves them and feels so close to them. He himself is preparing for trial in Rome, and is probably using evidence and trial terms in this epistle. They have helped him afford to travel and preach. They have operated together, if even not in the same place always. He longs for them, and he prays for them.

“For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.”

Like in a trial, St. Paul swears under oath – as God is my record. He eagerly desires to be with them. He longs after them and yearns for them. He uses the words tender mercies for compassion, which means guts. An old way of saying this is “bowels of mercy”. And these are not St. Paul’s tender mercies, but Christ’s. He loves them, but it is not his own tenderness which he has towards them, but the tenderness of Christ Himself.

Remember that we, you and me, are no longer simply our own persons but are united to Christ as members of His Body. The love we have for one another shares in the love Christ has for each of us. That is to say, I love you with the love Christ loves you. That love is much better and more perfect and complete than my own impaired, imperfect, and limited love. As Christians, we love each other with the infinite love of Christ Himself. This is the love of God which can work miracles. This is what we have right here together in this parish.

“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;”

He begins by writing of “your love”, the loving-kindness which the Philippians have with each other, their mutual love which is the reflection of the love of God. He prays that this love of God which they have for each other “may abound yet more and more”! He wishes above all things, so much so that he goes to the Lord in prayer to intercede on their behalf, that the Christian self-sacrificial loving-kindness which they have for one another would continue to increase to maturity.

To this unquenchable fire of divine love he then follows “in knowledge and in all judgment” – this is the fruit of the love. And why do they need this knowledge and judgment?

“that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;”

The word “approve” here means to discern or prove. This is not a nod of the head. This is a searching understanding for that which is spiritually solid and excellent. He asks for an increase of love for right judgment so to approve only the best things. And why?

“That ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ” Sincere here literally means, “tested by sunlight”, like holding up jars of jelly or glasses of wine. “Without offence” means “without stumbling”, or without offense, such as in 1 Corinthians x.32: “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:” The “day of Christ” is the parousia, which is the Second Coming of Christ. St. Paul often mentions this as a way to remind the churches to prepare for this day, which of course is a day which we should prepare for as well.

What a wonderful prayer! We could not ask God for something more wonderful for each other. Loving-kindness, spiritual knowledge, discernment of excellence, all effective to ensure that they be judged by Christ on the last day to be blameless.

“being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

This “being filled with the fruits of righteousness” means completed, brought to maturity, and perfected. Being morally and spiritually perfected and brought to maturity gives rise to the “fruits of righteousness”. This term is from the Old Testament. Righteousness means being right with God.

The reading concludes with “the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” We do not repair our relationship with God through our own effort. Christ completes us and our relationship with Him. The fruits of righteousness are by Christ, are from outside of ourselves. We are the recipients of the fruits of righteousness as we are recipients of the fruits of the orange tree. The tree makes the fruit, and we receive and eat the fruit.

The righteousness of the Philippians is from Christ, and to Christ St. Paul gives thanks and praise, for he loves them, and he loves Him Who saved them and is perfecting them in love and righteousness. His love of them brings him to thank God. His love of these wonderful people brings him to love God even more.

Here is where the unity of the Two Great Commandments which I recited earlier this Mass comes from. The love of God and the love of neighbor are essentially one movement of love, one gracious outpouring, one cycle building up one, then the other, and then the one again. The love of God shows us to love our neighbor, and the love of neighbor lets us give thanks for God’s love.

Because we are members one with another with our fellow Christians, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves even when our neighbors are not Christian, not our friends, and not our family. We are to enter into personal loving relationships with our neighbors because we are followers of Christ whom He has redeemed and made righteous. Christ’s calling is the highest calling in the entire world, the whole cosmos. In the entirety of our lives, there is nothing we can do that is as important as loving the Lord our God with our whole selves and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

“I THANK my God upon every remembrance of you”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“Putting on the Whole Armor of God”

My dear children, we are all in danger. We are all under attack.

The serpent in the Garden beguiled the woman and tempted the man, bringing sin and death into our world and our lineage. We are made to live forever, yet we continue to drop off despite our best efforts to hang on.

Each one of us is assailed every day, beset by temptation and trial, the “wiles of the devil”. Have you ever wanted another fifteen minutes’ sleep instead of showing up to work on time? Would you rather do something in your home instead of say your prayers? Then you are under enemy fire through temptation.

In the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp around the end of the First Century, we read of what those condemned to die faced (2:4 – 3:1) “The devil tried many devices against them. But thanks be to God, his might did not prevail over any.”

We read in the Revelation of St. John xii.7: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,” We are in a fight whether or not we recognize it. Before we can put up an adequate defense, before we can recognize that we need a savior, we must realize that we are in terrible shape, and the enemy relents not, continuing to attack us in our weakness as well as our strength. We are in danger, for we are under attack.

We are insufficient to the task of defending ourselves against the powers of evil. We ourselves are influenced by the taint of wickedness and sin. We are surrounded by evil intelligences seeking our destruction. The rest of humanity, also under the influence of sin, distorts our sense of righteousness and entices us to follow it. We need help. We need divine help.

But thanks be to God, we read in this epistle lesson, as well as many other Scripture verses, that God has defended us. “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

This is not a new concept. Centuries earlier, Isaiah wrote in lix.17: “For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.”

St. Paul also wrote in 2 Corinthians x.3-4: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)”

Of course, using armor and weapons in this warfare means that we cannot fight naked, unarmored, and unarmed; that is, without help from outside of ourselves.

How are to be strong except in the Lord and the power of his might? All strength comes from God; all salvation comes from God. There is no one to help us but God. We have no life except in God.

We have the very Son of God, our noble captain. We have all the faithful saints as our comrades. We have Truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the Holy Ghost as our armor. We go forth in prayer, perseverance, and supplication. Christ has already won the ultimate battle on the Cross. Christ defeated death on that Cross. And yet we still fight the good fight. Christ has gone on to open Heaven to us, but He has not left us alone. He has sent us the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost.

With these spiritual protections and the very presence of God, we should not fear in the face of the ancient enemy or the contemporary ally of that enemy.

King David sings in Psalm lxxi.2: “Be thou my stronghold, whereunto I may alway resort:” This is a prayer, which is answered by God’s promise.

Psalm xxvii.1: “THE LORD is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? * the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?” Without God, we are weakened in darkness, caught by our enemies. We are caught by death, by hunger, by thirst, by nakedness, by unpopularity and loneliness, by disease, by icy coldness and scorching heat. Without God, we are utterly at a loss, destitute, defeated.

“MY brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” How are we to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might? St. Paul continues on and tells us that we are to “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

We as Christians are not alone. First and most importantly, we are members grafted onto Him, the True Vine, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega. We are members of Christ by His gracious allowance. He is most generous and courteous to us. Through our Holy Baptism into His death and Resurrection, He accepts us as members of His Body. We are never alone, for we are in Christ.

We as Christians are not alone. Second and most graciously, others are also members of Christ alongside us. We have brothers and sisters uncounted throughout the world and across time. St. Mark xii.26-27: “And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living:”

We are forever alive in Christ; in Christ we all have eternal life. We are right now the brothers and sisters of all the saints whose names we read in the Holy Mass – and have been read for many centuries – along with all the saints who appear in the back of the bulletin, along with those whom we pray for that we have known, along with saints we will never personally know until Heaven. We are members of Christ, yes and true; but we are also members one of another. We had better grow close to each other here and now, for we will be seeing each other for all eternity. And not just us, but many others born and those yet to be born. We are a powerful army, the great host of the Lord God of Sabaoth. We are members of Holy Church. We are the chosen, the elect of God Almighty. The world may turn its back on us, but first it turned its back on Christ, our High King and brother through divine adoption.

Even in the Old Testament, King David sang of the great power, support, and defense of our great, good, and powerful God. He sang that we trust him. He sang that the Lord was his “buckler, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge.” Buckler, or shield: David used God to defend himself. Horn: David called upon God to assist him and summon help in time of need. Refuge: David used God to hide himself in him, to rest assured that his enemies would not destroy him.

This is why we flee to Christ. He is God Incarnate. He is the Almighty Sovereign Lord God of the Universe Who has come down amongst us as a little baby in tiny Bethlehem. Bethlehem in Hebrew is Beth Lehem, or House of Bread. Christ is Heavenly Bread sent down from Heaven for us to eat, like manna. But unlike manna which lasted for but a day or two and gave nutrition only for a day or two, Christ’s own Blessed Body gives eternal life. Christ is God, and Christ offered up His Body for us to eat and offered up His Blood for us to drink.

Yesterday, our young Mr. Jordan Hewett received the completion of his Baptism in the Sacrament of Confirmation. He has now literally entered into the communion of Christ by communing with His Body and Blood. He has eaten the Bread of Heaven. He has drank Christ’s own Blood poured out for the life of the world.

Christ died on the Cross so that our newest communicant might be saved, and Christ offered him His Body and His Blood so that Jordan might receive Divine Medicine, the only cure and stay against death, disease, and decay. Jordan has partaken of everlasting life, like so many of you have! We are defended against “the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We are here to put on “the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

We are weak, but He is strong. So we wrap ourselves, not in the temporary flag of this mortal country, but in the Flesh and Blood of our Lord Christ. We put on the whole armor of God, which is God Himself! We bury ourselves deep into the bosom of our Lord so that all the ailments of this world cannot touch us.

Oh, but we are still subject to “the rulers of the darkness of this world.” Unless Christ returns first in power and great glory, we will die, we will draw our last breath, our eternal spirits will separate from our bodies, “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” But lest we forget the words which follow, recall that we will rise again, “in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.”

Christ is God. Christ is Lord. We are fully vested in Christ, and Christ will redeem us, Christ is redeeming us, and Christ has redeemed us. We are entirely secure and safe in our Lord Christ.

Christ is our savior and our friend, He Who delivers us from the power of Hell and brings us into everlasting life through His Body and Blood.

Christ guards us and wards us with powerful arms and armor, so that each of us may:

take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

We do this not alone by ourselves, but constantly “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

We are never alone. We are saved by the Body and Blood of Christ. We are mighty in the Holy Ghost.

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“We give thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“Baptized into Christ’s Kingdom”

We are subjects of two kingdoms. We are subjects of Christ our King and citizens of these United States, or whatever country you hail from. How we live our lives in this green land of America is both informed by our Heavenly King and will influence our life in the hereafter. Also, our life under Christ our King informs our citizenship here on earth in this great country of ours.

Now the kingdom of this world is not simply the domain of Satan, even though St. Paul does call it “the power of darkness”. The kingdom of this world is that broken part of Creation, of the cosmos, that does not claim Christ as Lord. Whereas we like to think that the saving work of Christ in the cosmos is expanding, in our own culture we see little evidence of it. Think for instance of thirty-five years ago, when the popular television series M*A*S*H sympathetically depicted a chaplain amongst its characters. Such a thing is foreign to television today.

Indeed, university students are increasingly told that their faith holds no bearing – or only poses a burden – on their education, when the original universities were explicitly Christian. Unelected judges overturn same-sex marriage bans and abortion restrictions partially on the claim of there being no reasonable or non-sectarian basis for them. In several states of this Union, courts and legislatures require citizens taking out any insurance plan to pay for elective abortions, regardless of their consciences, even though it is simply avoided.

But despite all this and the recent news out of Houston with sermons being demanded of preachers, other governments in the kingdom of this world have had it much worse. This Wednesday we celebrate the Feast of the Martyrs of Uganda, the dozens of Anglican and Roman Catholic boys who were the sex slaves of the pagan king of Uganda and refused his lustful desires. For their disobedience to the king of this world and their obedience to the High King of Heaven, they were put to death. Earlier, the king had grown angry with the missionaries from the Church of England and the Church of Rome as they kept criticizing him and his support of Moslem missionaries.

This past week in Morning Prayer, we read in First Kings about Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel, how the righteous prophet squared off against the wicked monarchs of Israel. But before Elijah, Samuel warned Israel against having an earthly king, warning them in I Samuel viii.18: “And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.”

Worldly governments clearly fail to set out a righteous course for us to live in. But the government of Christ the King exemplifies all good and glorious things. Our worldly governments tell us that things which are clearly wrong are right; the government of Christ the King unerringly tells us what the wrong things are with such accuracy and precision that we cannot actually avoid them perfectly.

Today’s Epistle mentions “the inheritance of the saints in light”. This refers to the Kingdom of God. In the next verse, “the power of darkness” is the antithesis of the Kingdom.

“And he is the head of the body, the church:” Coming right after speaking of “all things” and spiritual beings, this shows that the last verses here, vv 18-20, demonstrate an equivalency between the cosmos and the Church. This is tied to the universal mission of Holy Church, to bring all people to Christ and His kingdom. The work of the Church is Christ’s salvific work in the whole broken cosmos. Later in ii.10, Christ is called the “head of every rule and authority”. Christ created all and rules all, and we are members of His Body in that cosmos and Holy Church. Each one of us is part of something epic and big.

Now, there is one way into Christ’s Kingdom: Holy Baptism. We read in St. John iii.5, “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This is our passport, our entrance; this is how we immigrate from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God. When we are buried with Christ and then share in His Resurrection, we join with Him mystically and sacramentally. When Christ commands His disciples at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, He says,

“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

Before we are Augustans, Georgians, or Americans, before we are black, white, or any other race of this world, before all these things, we are under the banner of Christ our King. By virtue of our supernatural sacramental Baptism into the life and death of Christ our Lord, we are brothers and sisters of the Nigerian schoolgirl held in some African camp more fully than we are brothers and sisters to our natural sister who does not believe. By virtue of our belief in Christ our King, we are brothers and sisters of the impoverished but faithful Haitian farmer more than we are brothers and sisters to our unbaptized brother with whom we grew up.

So what does this new citizenship look like? We read in Ephesians v.1-5:

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

First, we must walk in sacrificial loving-kindness. We must love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our soul, and with all our minds, and we must love our neighbors as ourselves. This is unbelievably difficult, but we have no alternative. God is love, and we are to conform ourselves to God.

Second, we are very specifically told to avoid wicked behavior. After all, Christ says, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” So we are to avoid fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, jesting. We are not to be whoremongers, unclean, covetous, or idolaters. Essentially, we are to pay attention and keep the Ten Commandments.

We are to love and we are to keep moral lives. Third, we are to give thanks. It is no mistake that each of our regular services in our Book of Common Prayer includes a prayer of thanksgiving. We are to thank God for the goodness in our lives. We are to thank God for our lives, God himself, other people, and all the goodness of God. Love without thanks is hardly love indeed.

Today’s Epistle begins, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”

Moving from darkness into light reminds the Christian soul of the Exodus, especially the miraculous passage through the Red Sea. While Moses his prophet stretched out his hand, the Lord caused the wind to blow on the sea, exposing the seabed so that the people of Israel could escape from Pharaoh and his army, freeing them to reach the Holy Land. So likewise, we are in bondage to sin and death in the kingdom of this world, no matter how fine it is otherwise to us. And God brings us out of “from the power of darkness”. Through the miracle of Christ’s death and Resurrection, we transfer from one side to the other.

Having passed from the old way of death to the new way of life, Christ having given us the forgiveness of sins, so we are to imitate our God and King.

The way we worship is to obey. And we become like Christ. When the early Church worshipped Christ their God, they became more and more like Christ, and they grew like wildfire. The early Christians did not visit and attend congregations to find out which ones were the most like what they wanted, asking to make the service the way they wanted, requiring the teaching to be like they wanted. In all things, they obeyed Holy Church, they obeyed their Lord and Savior, they became like Him as disciples, and they grew and spread. This is the way not only of faithfulness to God, not only of resisting the sinfulness of the world, but is also the way of evangelism, growth, and maturity.

Almost like the Anglo-Saxons of Wessex over eleven hundred years ago, our king is our best man, the man who exemplifies our ideals, the man whom we seek to emulate. Blessed Alfred the Great, King of Wessex was one such king of this world; Christ, the King of Heaven and Earth, is the king of the whole cosmos and of the whole Church.

With God, we know who is king. We know that His rule is always right and holy. We know that we have no say in His rule. And indeed, while God wants our whole selves, our souls and bodies, we actually live in great freedom, freedom from sin, death, and Hell.

God the Father calls us to live our lives in the service of Christ our King. We are to live meek, humble lives in penitence and holiness, avoiding sin, and loving our God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves.

“We give thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“WATCH thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“The work of the evangelist”

Why do we sing the Gospel during the Mass? Why do we stand when it is proclaimed? Why do we sometimes process the Gospel out amongst the congregation to proclaim it? Why must the Gospeller be in Holy Orders?

We read in Isaiah lii.7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!”

Beautiful feet? That sounds over the top. Yet over-the-top is how we proclaim the Gospel both here at St. Luke’s and in catholic churches around the world throughout the ages.

St. Luke’s Gospel tells the story of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, from before His Annunciation till His Ascension into Heaven. His is the Greatest Story Ever Told, and our patron saint, St. Luke the Evangelist, is one of the sacred four who told the story so that the rest of us might hear it.

The patron saint of our parish wrote almost as much of the New Testament as Saint Paul. He is the only Gentile who wrote one of our Gospels. According to Colossians iv.14, we know that he was a physician. As a doctor and writer of a Gospel, he is considered the patron saint of doctors and healers. His sign as evangelist is the ox with wings, giving us the name of our newsletter, the Winged Bull.

He is also the patron saint of artists. During the Middle Ages, many Guilds of St. Luke encouraged and defended artists in important cities in Rome, Flanders, and across Europe. Here at our parish, our Creative Christians group continues this tradition by encouraging both Christian art and Christian artists.

But St. Luke did not only write a Gospel leaving us inspired depictions of the life of the Blessed Mother, our Lord Christ, and the early Church. St. Luke also did the work of an evangelist by journeying with St. Paul on at least two of his mission trips, staying with him in Rome. Our patron is counted among the Seventy who Christ commissioned and sent out to do ministry in today’s Gospel lesson.

St. Luke wrote his Gospel in Greek, helping spread the Good News of Christ throughout the pagan Gentile world of the First Century. The Early Church suffered greatly for proclaiming the Gospel. St. Paul and all the Apostles save St. John met their Lord in the martyr’s death.

And lest we think that the persecution of Christians is a bygone practice, this Wednesday we celebrate the faithful Christian witness of eight Anglican clergymen whom the Japanese killed for preaching the Gospel in occupied New Guinea during World War II. Tens of thousands of priests and millions of faithful Christians died at the hands of the Communists in Russia and elsewhere in the Twentieth Century. The Moslems have killed far more over the centuries, and they are still at it today.

Closer to home, we hear rumblings of persecution. I warned in my annual report last year of coming troubles. As St. Peter writes in his first epistle, “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”

This week, news came out of Houston, Texas which has troubled the hearts and minds of many Christians. Let us look into what the facts are:

The city council and mayor of Houston passed an ordinance which would permit women to use men’s bathrooms and men women’s bathrooms and allowing people to file complaints with the city government if they are not allowed to use the bathroom they want.

Houston preachers and others organized a petition for a referendum to overturn the ordinance at the November election. The city government claimed that too many of the signatures were not valid and refused to schedule the vote. Christian activists then sued the city to accept the signatures and thus the petition and put the ordinance to the vote.

In response, the city’s lawyers issued subpoenas to five conservative preachers to hand over sermons to determine of any preaching related to homosexuality, so-called gender identity, or even the mayor. A subpoena is a legal writ compelling someone to appear before court or to surrender documents to the court. These preachers would now have to surrender to a law court any sermon mentioning any of these topics.

The mayor has asked if the preachers gave instructions on how to sign the petition. The city attorneys hold that the subpoenas are valid because the preachers worked to organize the repeal petition and are thus pertinent to the case.

Both conservative and liberal ministers have spoken out against the subpoenas. There has been a public outcry over the city’s actions. An interdenominational coalition of over 400 churches in Houston have opposed these subpoenas. This local action has sparked national debate. Some pastors have refused to hand over sermons.

The mayor and city attorney then agreed that the original subpoenas were too broad. New subpoenas have now been drawn up which do not ask for sermons, but rather for speeches and presentations, and do not ask about homosexuality, but still ask for other things besides those on the petition.

You may ask what a conservative pastor’s PowerPoint presentation on the ordinance has to do with the validity of the signatures on the petition. The answer is: Nothing. The city’s attorneys are still reaching beyond the appropriate legal necessity at hand, which has the effect of threatening the free speech of the preachers and the public practice of religion by the ministers of Christians.

A Christian – or another religion’s – minister preaching, speechifying, or presenting on the sexual nature of God’s Creation and on the divinely ordained morality which faithful people must practice are not crimes, do not threaten the state, and indeed support the wholesomeness, integrity, and the commonweal of the people.

The representatives of free American citizens are not called to sift through the words of religious leaders, looking for sedition. The city is not a political organization which cannot tolerate dissent. The governmental structures of this world have no legitimate role in approving or disapproving the voice of the Bride of Christ. Our American governments have no legitimate role in intimidating preachers or believers.

We Continuing Anglicans directly descend from those who were quickened with zeal by the Assize Day Sermon by Blessed John Keble at St. Mary’s Church in Oxford, in which he publicly from the University Pulpit criticized the Whig-controlled Parliament for reducing the number of bishops in Ireland without the approval of the Church of Ireland. As your priest and rector, I stand in a very long line of bishops and priests who have criticized the state when the state has had the worldly effrontery to admonish and attempt to control Holy Mother Church.

This very day last year, Archbishop Haverland sat right there and in the words of our Book of Common Prayer challenged me “faithfully to feed that portion of the flock of Christ which is now intrusted to you; not as a man-pleaser, but as continually bearing in mind that you are accountable to us here, and to the Chief Bishop and Sovereign Judge of all, hereafter.”

It would certainly please many people if we decided that we would ignore the things of God and whole-hearted accept the things of man. But that would be forsaking God by making us pleasing to men, and I have been told not to be a “man-pleaser”.

My wife once saw a person wearing button which answered an unasked naughty question with “No thanks, I’d rather go to heaven.” We lives our lives in this world, oftentimes forgetting that our lives are given to us by our good God in Heaven. We may choose to do many things. But we will be called to divine judgement one day. All choices are not the same. Some are right, and some are wrong. When we are enticed, seduced, and tempted to make a wrong choice, it is good for us to say, “No thanks, I’d rather go to Heaven.”

I know you. I know that most of you won’t budge if this Houston business happened here. You know me. You know that I won’t budge if this happened here. We know our archbishop. We know that he won’t budge if this happened here.

And this hasn’t happened here in Augusta. Indeed, we elected a preacher of the Gospel as our mayor. But this has now happened in these United States. My dear children of God, I would rather you live your lives in peace, but I tell you this day that we will soon be facing worse, and not just in Texas, but here on the banks of the Savannah River. Our sister parish across the river, All Saints’, Aiken, witnesses to the Gospel in a state where a Federal court might force their county to issue marriage licenses to people of the same sex. Dark days are coming.

We here at St. Luke’s will continue to preach the Gospel of Christ our Lord, especially to those who need to hear it. Many stories are told of the old Roman martyrs, some of whom are named in our Mass, who witnessed to their tormenters and executioners to great effect, converting souls in the Holy Name of Jesus.

If anyone in this world wants to know what I preach, come here to St. Luke’s most any Sunday at 10:30 and hear for himself. I even put my sermons up on a webpage. I would love for everyone out there to hear me preach about our Lord and Savior!

The government can hear our public proclamation. Those who try to order us about and deny us our freedom both to practice and proclaim the True Religion of Christ are the ones who need to hear it the most. We shall not back down. St. Luke our patron did not back down. St. Paul did not back down. Fr. Keble did not back down, and neither did the faithful gathered together at the Congress of St. Louis in 1977.

We at St. Luke Church are uniquely positioned to proclaim the Holy Gospel to souls in peril here in Augusta as the times grow darker. We preach the unadulterated truth, the whole Gospel, all the Sacraments, without Roman and Eastern doctrinal accretions, and we do so in the traditional language of this nation.

Everything St. Luke wrote was to tell other souls about Christ. He commended Christ to everyone at all times. He wrote down timeless truths about our Lord that the other Evangelists did not record. When we stand under the name of the Evangelist St. Luke, we stand for spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And like St. Luke, we are not only to sit down and tell other people about Christ, but we are to get up and tell people face to face, traveling to them to share the good news of Christ our Lord.

After St. Paul says in today’s epistle, “WATCH thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry”, he continues and says “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”

The day is coming when we will have to answer for our faith in Christ. That day may come when we draw our last breath and slip beyond the veil of this mortal life, when we will face the individual judgement. Jesus will look at each of us and know what we have done with the life He suffered and died to save, that life which the Holy Ghost bestowed with graces.

Or the day is coming when someone out there will make us chose to follow the world or to follow Christ. Maybe someone will try to seduce you into sexual sin. Maybe a crook will tempt you to help him commit a crime. Maybe your own elected government will coerce you to deny Christ and follow the popular godless way.

Will you stay the course and profess your faith in Christ when your livelihood and social standing are threatened? Will you stay the course and profess your faith in Christ when your life is required of you? What will you say when they come to coerce you to renounce your faith? Are you able to say that today?

“WATCH thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“Church: Hospital or Hospice?”

There are no people who are to be unwelcome here! No one here has ever told me to make this a hoity-toity society parish, but many people have placed little limits here and there about making sure the riff-raff is kept out. But we are the riff-raff in the eyes of God! And the truth in the eyes of the eternal and Almighty God is actually true, unlike our notions of polite society which are here today and gone with the wind tomorrow.

We have need of physicians of the soul for we are sinners. When Christ sat at dinner to eat with St. Matthew and the other tax collectors, he sat with men who were known to take bribes, work for the Roman occupying force, and wring as much as they could out of the population. When the self-righteous Pharisees complained about that, Christ told them, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” The Body of Christ is to be a hospital for repentance and healing and not a club for the redeemed.

We are sinners. St. Paul says in Romans iii.23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” We are not to be only treating our pain but undergoing spiritual healing. We can never think first of the pain. Who would ever set a broken bone if we only thought of the pain? Who would take months of chemotherapy if we only thought of the pain? We have amongst this parish survivors of cancer who have undergone very difficult treatment. I for one am glad that they – y’all – underwent such painful treatment, for I would rather you be with us than not.

If we are doing the Lord’s work, we can welcome the criticisms of our enemies because they give us the opportunity to explain ourselves and what we are doing. The criticisms of the Pharisees allow Christ to explain the hospital concept. He isn’t just hanging out; He is doing the work of God with actual people, people like you and me.

Christians are to follow Christ in allowing everyone to come in to the community before we expect righteousness of them. Anyone with a soul is welcome. We do have standards of conduct, such as repenting of sin, receiving Holy Communion, and fasting, but these standards are for those who are already members, not standards to obey before you come to know Christ. Thus it is that we are a hospital for sinners. Faith comes before righteous living. Our modified behavior is our response to the great goodness given to us by Christ our Lord.

“Follow me” is the shortest, simplest, and most succinct call to Christian discipleship. To follow Christ is to live in His manner of life. We follow those upon whom we model ourselves. “Follow me” implies personal loyalty. Christ is not trying to get people to follow His set of rules or His philosophy but rather His Holy Person. Our faith is one of loving-kindness between persons. For instance, I am the husband of Angela, and Angela is the wife of me. I said that I took her as my wife, and she said she took me, bless her heart, as her husband. We did not become something complex like cult members or philosophers or disembodied talking heads when we married; we married each other.

Likewise, Christ is not trying to sell something here. We follow Him. This is why we are not people of a book like Jews and Mohammedans. We follow Christ – we are Christians. We are people in a personal relationship with our Lord and Master. This is why Apostolic Succession is so important – our faith is transmitted from mouth to ear and heart to heart. You cannot truly read yourself into the Christian Faith. Reading theology is not the basis of Christian ministry. Love between members of the household of God is. I am your spiritual father, and you are my spiritual children. And so on.

Buying your child or grandchild a Bible is no substitute for attending Mass with her. It is more important for him to hear you answer the question in person than to have him look up the answer for himself. Even though we fail as leaders to our children and priests fail as leaders to our people, this way of communicating between persons is the fundamental way of learning about Christ. Getting embarrassed about speaking religion to each other is part of our relationship with each other.

Christ is Himself the answer to sin, sickness, and death. Christ is a bold one, for He is the Incarnate Son of God made flesh down here on earth to save us from sin, sickness, and death. Christ is both the messenger and the cure. Christ is both the priest and the victim. Christ is both God and Man. Our connection with God, our source of ultimate healing is found in that singular human person, that ancient Jew. Christ is entirely God and entirely human and yet is but one single Person, the Holy Person whose Name

is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians ii.9b-11)

St. Matthew found the “pearl of great price”, and nothing in this world could compare with the Man Who found Him. So, like the others fishing in their boats, the Evangelist and Apostle dropped what he was doing without a care of what might befall him to follow the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
A hospice is a place where you go to die. The folks who work with hospice do not allow any fighting to save your life. They want you to die peacefully and with as little pain as possible. A hospice is not a place to go in order to heal. One is supposed to be carried out of a hospice.

A hospital is a place where you go to heal. One goes to a hospital in order to get back on your feet and eventually leave under your own power, even if they insist on the wheelchair ride to the front door or to your car.

I have had a season-long clinical pastoral education internship at a hospital in Illinois and a year-long CPE residency at a hospital in South Carolina. One of my problems in these hospitals is that the spiritual care, the pastoral care provided seemed to be of a palliative nature.

According to getpalliativecare.org, palliative care “focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness—whatever the diagnosis.” Palliative care makes the physical, social, mental, and emotional burdens of being sick more bearable. It does not attempt to cure the ailment.

I confess that I am not a big fan of palliative care. I have a painful chronic illness, and I would much rather receive a therapy which gets me healed up and on my way. Instead, the medicine I take helps me tolerate the burden of being sick. I am thankful for this care and medication, for it allows me to do more than I was able to do before I took the medicine.

But, I much prefer therapy that improves my condition. One of the reasons I felt so called to amend my life and trust in Christ was that I saw someone live a better and holier life that I did. Forgive me if you heard my story, but some fellows and I worked together in Atlanta many years ago. We were smart-alecs, jerks, clever boys with a turn of phrase who thought that we were hilarious.

One of the ladies were worked with seemed like a silly girl. She dressed funny and talked funny, and we made fun of her. I’m sure it wasn’t fun to her. But here’s the kicker – she always treated us with decency and respect. She was a follower of Christ in that she actually walked with the Son of God and treated other people with the love with which Christ loved her.

Confronted with genuine Christian loving-kindness, I stood convicted of my sins. I underwent the painful realization that my life of disrespect was not worth living. I wanted to love other people and myself the way she loved me and the way Christ loved her. I came back home to church and repented of my sins. I am honored to tell you here today that in the last few weeks of my father’s life he saw this son of his come back into the Christian walk that he had taught me to walk in.

Here I stand twenty-five years later a changed man. I am not as good a man as I hope to be someday, but I can safely say that I am a better man. Angela has known me long enough to attest to the fact that I am a better man today than when she first met me.

But here is the thing about palliative care: If I had not felt that pain of public humiliation realizing that I treated others poorly, I can’t see as how I would have repented from my sins. The pain I felt was a good thing. It taught me, it schooled me that I was on a road to damnation. I knew my life was out of order when I felt that pain. I thank God Almighty sitting in Heaven above that I was not provided palliative spiritual care, Christian ministration that got the pain to stop.

That pain was good for me. I went to the hospital of Christ’s church to get spiritual healing. If I had been taken to a spiritual hospice, I would have been told that I was good enough just the way I was and that I did not need to change.

My dear children, Christ sat at table full of sinners so that He could redeem them. Our parish here is named after the most famous physician of Holy Scripture, St. Luke. Jesus Christ has established His Bride, Holy Church, here on earth to help save sinners. We sit here on Wheeler Road so that we may do the work of Christ and be a place of spiritual healing.

That means that we will hurt. We will hurt from our own sins. And Christ wants us to hurt from our sins. We are not to cover over our sins and adopt pseudo-therapies that reduce our suffering. No! We must suffer fully. We must feel our hurt so that we may correct our lives! We must let our brothers and sisters who are members of Christ’s Body feel their hurt so that they may amend their lives. We spiritually injure our fellow members of Christ’s Church when we try to take away their suffering before the time is over.

That means that others will hurt. We are a hospital for sinners. When we welcome people who suffer the pains of this fallen world through their own fault, the fault of others, and the assaults of the Devil, we must take them in and bandage them up like the Good Samaritan did. We must suffer with them – that is what the word compassion means: To suffer with.

We must embrace the pain of this world and let folks know that they can come here for spiritual healing.

This parish holds together two different notions of what a parish ought to be. For on the one hand, we know each other well, we are friends with each other, we seek out others who will serve what we have already established as members of this parish, and we seek out others who will keep our parish family going. This is a cozy, comfortable, and unfruitful way of conducting ourselves.

But on the other hand, we are a mission outpost of the right bank on the Savannah River. All Saints’, Aiken has the left bank. This is our duty station, and from here we are to fulfill the Great Commission given to the Apostles and thus to our bishops – “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

We are both a family and a mission outpost. As a parish family, we show some of the domestic loving-kindness made possible in Christ our Lord. But we are also tempted towards living out the Christian life in this parish as a hospice, avoiding pain, keeping peace, and not rocking the boat.

As a mission outpost, we focus on preaching the Gospel and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Thus we are tempted towards living out the Christian life in this parish as a hospital, dragging in the wounded off the street, binding their wounds, and loving them, encouraging those who have fallen, strengthening those who are weak, and occasionally sending on their way those who simply stopped by for a rest.

Discerning correctly and loving appropriately is the principal challenge for us here at St. Luke Church as we grow into the future.

“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“…If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

“Trusting in Christ”

We are all under sin; not one of us can save himself from everlasting death. Only by faith in Christ are we saved.

We cannot earn our salvation. We cannot become righteous before God by following the Law of Moses. Following the Ten Commandments does not make us righteous before God. Following the Six Duties of Churchmen does not make us righteous before God. The Law and all such plans teach us how far short we fall from where we ought to be.

This helps us open up ourselves to God. The spiritual truth that we can do nothing to earn our salvation is difficult to hear. People listening to Christ preach found it difficult to hear; we sitting here at St. Luke Church find it difficult to hear.

God promised Abraham in Genesis xii.2-3: “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Abraham showed that he believed God by his willingness to obey God and sacrifice his son, Isaac. But after Abraham, the people knew the promise, but knowing the promise of greatness to come did nothing to inspire them to be good. Perhaps it made righteousness less desirable to pursue, for virtue takes effort, and Abraham’s descendants assuredly knew that their promise was to come true.

So God gave Moses the Law to give to Israel. Israel could never completely fulfill the Law of Moses, but they had it to guide them as they became a nation out in the wilderness, through the time of the judges, and of the kings, and of the prophets. They were taught righteousness.

St. Paul says as much in Galatians iii.24: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmasterto bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” The Law was powerless to lead Israel into righteousness. Ultimately, the Law showed us how we each were condemned as being not good enough.

John Wesley speaks to this:

Will it follow from hence that the law is against, opposite to, the promises of God? By no means. They are well consistent. But yet the law cannot give life, as the promise doth. If there had been a law which could have given life – Which could have entitled a sinner to life, God would have spared his own Son, and righteousness, or justification, with all the blessings consequent upon it, would have been by that law.

Similarly, Isaac Williams says:

The Law was to convince them of sin, and bring them to Christ: thus John the Baptist preached repentance; for if they had believed Moses they would have believed in Christ. The Law was but the means, not the end; but the Jews were now making it the end; whereas the end of the Law is Christ, in Whom is the promise, and the blessing, and the covenant, and righteousness, and life; not for a time only, but for ever. It was to this the prophets of old looked,’ to this the saints of the elder covenant aspired, to behold Christ, the end of the Law, in Whom dwells the fulness of all good, the love of God flowing down from Heaven, and embracing all men; as the fragrant oil that came down on the head of Aaron, and went to the skirts of his clothing.

We are not capable in our fallen, mortal, and limited state to fulfill the Law and earn for ourselves righteousness. The mightiest hero, the holiest saint, the wisest philosopher can no more earn his own righteousness before God than the weakest of us. We all are in the same boat when it comes to deserving our own salvation.

We do not do the work of salvation – Christ does. In Acts xxvi.14, St. Paul tells his personal story of the futility of seeking to earn salvation through righteous living instead of Christ: “And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

Indeed, when St. Paul addressed divisions in the Church, he said in 1 Corinthians iii.6: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” Christ, being God, is utterly trustworthy. We can completely depend upon Him. We do not live under the law, struggling and kicking. Each of us has our own work as members of Christ’s Body the Church, but we fool ourselves if we consider that our work is somehow necessary to the fruition of God’s work in us. Unless the Lord returns first, we shall each of us die. Not a single one of us is indispensable. Only Christ is indispensable, and we are made members of Him, and consequently into Christ’s indispensable character through faith and the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

After all, we read in Proverbs iii.5: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Depending upon Christ, we are not to depend upon ourselves. We are not to depend on the works of our hands.

But the works we create are not entirely worthless. We are to offer up to God the works of our hands. One of my spiritual heroes, the Cure d’Ars, St. Jean Marie Baptist Vianney, said, “All that we do without offering it to God is wasted.” Our work is important as a faithful response to Christ’s life-saving work of death and Resurrection. Thus we ought to not rely upon ourselves but place all our weight upon Christ.

And we are in no hurry. That anxious desire to hurry is a sign of brokenness, of corruption of our holy selves. Christ enjoys no anxiety. He neither races to His Passion in Jerusalem nor does He seek to avoid it.

Even our knowledge of God is imperfect. 1 Corinthians xiii.12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” We see imperfectly today but after Christ returns we shall see Him and know Him face to face. Until then, we only have faith – we trust that He is here saving us.

Christ shows us all love. Christ exemplifies sacrificial loving-kindness because He sacrificed Himself for us because He loved us when we were unworthy of His love. The Law teaches us that we are sinners who need Christ. It is thus for us not to try to earn our salvation through the Law but to believe and trust in Christ. When we lean upon Christ for support, He supports us with His love, and we are saved through God Incarnate and not the written Law.

We are called to believe in Christ, to follow Him, and to love like He loves. We must simply and meekly love Christ and our neighbor. We trust in Him and follow Him, conforming our lives to His holy life. We need not concern ourselves with earning our reward but following Him in His way.

This journey through life is a journey following Christ, not our own conceits. We must simply and earnestly rely upon Christ. It is in this way that we are free from both the Law and from anxiety. We don’t have to earn or deserve anything. All the doing happened before you and I showed up. Calvary happened almost twenty centuries ago. Our job is to open ourselves up and follow the Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yet this does not mean that we are to be lazy and pay attention to frivolous things. This does mean that we live lives of assurance. We do not need to worry about our salvation, for Christ has already won that for us. We do not need to worry about our earthly legacy, for it will be swept away by the ravages of time and of little consequence in the afterlife. We do not need to worry about our loved ones, for the Great Physician and Lover of our Souls is looking after them far better than we ever could.

This does not mean that we give up. This means that we give in. We give in to Christ. We give in to relying upon Christ. We give in to following Christ. We give in to loving God and others like Christ first loved us.

And He even explains why. Loving-kindness. We read in St. John iii.16-17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

“…If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.